Mencius: Reframing Adversity
We are the product of our frame of reference, our struggles, our experiences, our joys. Every lived moment is an exercise in learning, if utilized properly. Even silence is a response, an answer, a teacher. Where Confucius in the Analects develops the philosophy of virtuous men, Mencius in his work describes it into action. The core philosophy of Confucianism is to cultivate a virtuous inner self so that you cultivate your presence in family and society in harmony, balance, and virtue. Mencius in Book VI: II: XV ii-v, dismantles the conventional view of hardship. Hardship, he argues is not misfortune, it is Heaven sent essential experience to cultivate virtue, moral, and political excellence. “Thus, heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his in competencies.” [1] Mencius explains that true strength, clarity, and capability are not innate gifts; these are qualities forged deliberately in the fires of trial.
Mencius’s argument is a metaphor for human potential. He explains that an individual destined for great responsibilities must first be subjected to mental toil, physical hardship, and existential deprivation. This process is not punitive but purposeful; perfection does not bring experience. If one has not discomfort or adversity in any capacity, one does not learn how to overcome any misfortune, solve problems, or gain wisdom. Adversity and sufferings serve to disturb the equilibrium of a comfortable life. Mencius argues this is a shaking of the soul and spirit from complacency; thus, awakening the latent previously unlearned capacity for resilience, fortitude, patience, and ingenuity. “Men for the most part err, afterwards able to reform. They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts, and then they arise to vigorous reformation. When things have been evidenced in men’s looks, and set forth in their words, then they understand them.” [2] Through this forging, one’s nature is not broken but refined to gain wisdom, clarity and the fortitude necessary to carry the burden of responsibility and fulfill one’s destiny. Perfection and ease lead to complacency and ineptitude.
Mencius does not only explain how this principle is important for the cultivation of an individual self, but also for the “Princes” of State. “If a Prince have not about his court families attached to the laws and worthy counselors, and if abroad there are not, hostile states or other external calamities, his Kingdom will generally come to ruin.” [3] Through this verse Mencius extends this philosophy to the governing bodies as well. He argues that governing states, like individual people, require discipline and pressure to thrive. A nation that is enjoying perpetual peace, devoid of external threats and internal strife, is not in a utopia, but a dying one. Mencius warns that this type of convenient society tends toward complacency and decay from within. Without challenges to unite a people, a society, the hardships will not be overcome. Instead, the governing body and society becomes susceptible to indolence, corruption, and a loss of collective purpose. “From these things we see how life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.” [4] The absence of adversity leads not to a utopia or paradise, but to a slow and inevitable decline into complacent destruction. When the disciplines of justice, duty, and public spirit atrophy from disuse, a ruling body has failed in its duty to uphold the virtue and purpose of a nation.
Through these passages Mencius redefines the relationship between struggle and virtue. He offers a reframing structure of life’s inevitable difficulties, and struggles. Mencius instead offers the insight to transform them from obstacles to be feared into opportunities to be embraced. The individual seeking moral cultivation and the state striving for a lasting rule with justice and purpose, the philosophy is clear: the path to greatness is paved with purposeful discomforts, agitations, and trials. Mencius taught that adversity is not the enemy of human potential, but it is a necessary teacher, without which strength remains dormant and purpose unfulfilled.
[1] James Legge, The Chinese Classics. with Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes: The Works of Mencius / Volume 2: James Legge. St. George Press, 2023. Book VI: II: XV ii
[2] Ibid. Legge. Book VI: II: XV iii
[3] Ibid. Legge. Book VI: II: XV iv
[4] Ibid. Legge. Book VI: II: XV v
This was such a powerful read. I may have come to this understanding through a very different path, but I wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve written here. There was a time in my life when I was so buried in grief and despair that I hated life, hated God, hated fate, or whatever force I thought had “done” all of it to me.
But looking back now, I see that all of that was the catalyst for my spiritual awakening. The very thing that broke me open is what reshaped me. And strangely, beautifully, I’m grateful for it.
Your words reminded me how adversity becomes the teacher we never wanted but always needed. Thank you for writing this.
I read this and Nietzsche's “what does not kill us makes us stronger” came to mind.
I wonder if this would explain why our society has become so soft. Too many people not experiencing hardships because they are being coddled either by overprotective parents or possibly by society itself.
Great article Dorie